Dec. 5 marks the beginning of Michigan’s Muzzleloader Deer Season. It’s a short period that used to mean something in our fine state.
After regular gun season ended, the real traditionalists would reach for their black powder rifles. Think Mel Gibson in “The Patriot”—primitive weapons that shoot one shot at a time, loaded from the muzzle. It was a throwback deer season for purists who wanted the challenge.
But Michigan doesn’t really have a real muzzleloader season anymore. Not in the Lower Peninsula anyway.
Technically, we’ve got a “Muzzleloading Season.” But what we actually have is a “December rifle season that we still call muzzleloader for some reason.” In Zones 2 and 3 (everything south of the Bridge), you can now use any legal firearm during what’s supposedly primitive weapon season.
Your grandpa’s smoke pole sits in the safe while guys are out there with .450 Bushmaster ARs looking for deer.
In the Lower Peninsula, the mystique is totally gone. The whole point was the challenge: One shot. Black powder. Make it count. There was something pure about earning your deer the hard way, in the cold, with technology from the 1800s.
Now it’s just another regular gun season with a different name.
I get why the purists are upset. These guys spend all year perfecting their loads. They can tell you things like the exact grain count that grouped best at 100 yards. They’re people who choose the harder path on purpose. They want the smoke, the ritual of loading, the connection to a fading past.
That’s all out the window now. Why handicap yourself with a muzzleloader when the guy in the next blind has a scoped .350 Legend? A wonderful tradition has been regulated out of existence.
I guess this is how modernity works. It makes things easier and destroys tradition in the process. Stick shifts gave way to automatics. Handwritten letters gave way to emails. Film cameras gave way to iPhones. Iron sights gave way to scopes.
Every generation watches its traditions get streamlined into oblivion.
Here’s the thing, though—I’m not torn up about it. I’m not much of a smoke pole guy. Michigan needs more deer killed, and if opening up muzzleloader season to all firearms puts more venison in freezers and reduces crop damage, that’s a net positive.
I just love hunting with a rifle, always have. And December in the Mitten State is cold. I was hunting this morning in 11-degree weather, and it’s only going to get colder. Given the choice between fumbling percussion caps with numb fingers or chambering another round in my deer rifle, I know which one I’m picking.
Muzzleloader participation has been dropping anyway. Fewer and fewer hunters want to deal with the hassle. The learning curve is steep. The equipment is expensive. And cleaning a muzzleloader after a day in the field isn’t easy.
Opening it up to all firearms probably saved the season from dying altogether. But something has definitely been lost. The small group of dedicated traditionalists who kept the black powder tradition alive has been pushed aside. Their special season has become everybody’s season.
I’ll still call it muzzleloader season because that’s what’s printed in the regulations. But we all know what it really is. It’s a bonus gun season in December. The smoke has cleared, literally and figuratively.
For the purists still burning black powder when everyone else is shooting centerfire, I respect you. Doing something simply for its challenge is worthwhile. You’re keeping something alive the state gave up. For the rest of us taking advantage of another week with our deer rifles? At least we’re honest about it.
The mystique is gone. The tradition is fading. But the freezer’s getting filled, and that’s OK.
Progress marches on. It always does.
James Zandstra is an experienced outdoorsman with a passion for the Mitten State. Follow his work on X @TheFairChase1.
